20 yarn and said she'd do the knitting herself. Excelsior O NE day a matron we know com- plimented her colored laundress on the beauty and good manners of her daughter, a girl of fifteen or so who comes occasionally to help with the iron- ing. The laundress said yes her daugh- ter was a nice girl. Not only that, but she was much more sensible about boys than most girls of her age. "She just like serious boys," the laundress said. "The boy she goin' with now, he very fine and serious-he studyin' to be a prize- fighter ." Best Wishes D R. LIN YUTANG, the writ r, took home with him, on his departure for China, a document consisting of condensations of a thousand-odd letters written by Americans on the topic of relations between their country and his. He's going to show it to the Chiangs and others high in the Chinese government, in support of his con ten tion that the average American is more sympathetic toward China than out government policy would sometimes indicate. At the offices of the East and West Associa- tion, which took care of the secretarial work involved, they told us that these letters were the result of a request made by Dr. Lin over the radio and were thus quintessentially average. "They are from an audience of Americans whose radios happened to be turned on," one of the East and West officials explained. "What could be more average-Amer- ican than that?" Just to make it more average, Dr. Lin's speech had been giv- en almost no advance publicity. To judge from the letters, which we were allowed to skim through, the average American is neither isolationist nor imperialist, and has a rather keen awareness of international 01> "gations. A New England housewife Vv rote, "We are all a little slower in making drastic sacrifices for the right than we are in making them to save our lives. This is the reason we have been slow in our help to China. Try to understand." The gloomiest note was sounded by an Indiana man. "Imitate the British rather than the Americans," he said. "The British, once you know them well, will be a better example for an ancient and tradition-honoring people like yoursel ves than we Americans, who are chaotic, restless, and often just plain funny." Many of the letters quoted Henry Wallace. Almost all of them ignored the fact that Chinese last names come first and referred to Dr. Lin as Dr. Yutang. A lot of people sent money, though Dr. Lin hadn't asked for it. There was a total of a hundred and fifty dollars in checks and small bills. The tone of the letters ranged from the inspirational to the anecdotal. A man in Brooklyn quoted Walt Whit- man-"Each of us is limitless, each with his or her right upon the earth"-and a woman in North Dakota told about a time a Chinese laundryman had helped her out by fixing a flat tire for her. A good many of the letters reflected spe- cial interests. A scoutmaster in Flushing hoped that China would soon develop a youth movement of her own. A farmer in Iowa wrote, "I have a new tractor, and would feel greatly honored if some of you would come over here and let me teach you how to run it, if you can just wait until after spring plowing, though if your need is great I can do it sooner." A letter from a sturdy Utah cowhand said that if there was anything to ride in China, he would help them ride it. .A. seventeen-year-old girl named Patricia, of Geneva, Illinois, explaining her ad- miration for the Chinese people, wrote, "I've always believed in their philos- ophy. I never could understand this rush-rush-rush, push-push-push way of life. To tel1 you the truth, Dr. Yutang, my family think I'm just plain lazy." A Pennsy Railroad man asked Dr. Lin to greet all the Chinese railroad men for 1 " " h " " 11m, or as many as you a ve tIme to. .l\ Kansas City postman, a blind news- dealer in Albany, an Indian, a St. Louis insurance salesman, and a Hollywood doctor were also among the correspond- ents. A group of New Jersey school children wrote a letter beginning, "Dear Chinese children : We want to be friends "".... '. \ ',' " \ , ':,."'\i l \ ;'I . 'If f! l..:... , ,.... .r. ...,.,) . / l ' " L:./ t: ,(I r:-" ....!, l cif' 'Iii. r 1.1 I ' ... , l '. ) - 're ,!.;l li = Å :. 1) j,y l I ' 0 0 \ (\.. J ' - ::::.0 >'::;'# r - \ ' .: ,,. \ . ' ) " ' I: :L-. ' .;' "1;' ',', :y 4. J ' ' , ,('" , ( t ,: : ,' . .' 'J - -:- - - - '"- - ,_r :' ,, -,:/ DECEMDEI\ 18, 194-3 of yours." All in all, the letters cheered us up a good deal, and we hope they have the same effect in China. Off to Cairo T HIS is a story they tell on dark nights at LaGuardia Field, when the wind whistles about the hangars. Last summer, one of the regular planes from Washington landed and from it emerged, among other passengers, a man carrYIng an overstuffed brief case. He looked about him in some bewilder- ment, then asked an attendant, "What's the matter? Have we been forced down?" The attendant said no, that LaGuardia Field was the regular ter- minal for the WashIngton-New York flights. "New York!" the man cried. "I'm supposed to go to Cairo! " Well, it took a long time to get at the bottom of all this, but they got the answer. There were two travellers with the same first and last names, one bound for Cairo, the other for New York, and the airline had got them mixed. It was just one of those things. The New York passenger was put on the next Cairo trip, and the man who had just wanted to go to New York finally succeeded in beat- ing his way back from Egypt, or at least they hope he did. Dexter E VERYBODY who has heard "Pis- tol Packin' Mama" will want to hear all about Al Dexter, the composer, or at least we're proceeding on that as- sumption. Last week we interviewed Mr. Dexter and his wife in his dressing room at the Capitol Theatre, where he and his hillbilly band, as the main attrac- tion of the stage show, sing and play "Pistol Packin' Mama." An irritated critic on Variety said.that Al Dexter and his band were probably the worst enter- tainment ever offered on a big-time vaudeville stage, but that can't be right, because they get paid $3,500 a week. This is about $3,400 more than Mr. Dexter was making last March, before Okeh released his recording of his chef- d' æuvre. This version sold a million and a half copies, and then Bing Crosby came along with his version and sold another million; the sheet-music sales reached the respectable figure of four hundred thousand. As composer, Mr. Dexter collects three cents a copy on the sheet music and three-quarters of a cent on each record. He also collects an ad- ditional half cent as the performing art- ist on his own records. So far, this has